Just My Take: “We” the people of Broncos Country

Everyone complains about it but no one will really talk about it. The terrible scourge that affects countless sports fans has claimed enough victims and it’s time we discuss what those cowards in the Denver sports media won’t tackle.

We can end sports fans using “we” to describe what’s going on with the Denver Broncos in our lifetime if we just spread some awareness.

It’s been happening a lot lately since there’s been so much talk about which direction the Broncos should go after Super Bowl 50, it sounds like a gaggle of French tourists has been shouting in the affirmative for the last few weeks. Fans tend to include themselves in discussions involving their teams and while totally natural to do so, it’s also patently obnoxious and so completely un-self-aware that it may indicate severe mental health problems.

Oh, were you in the room when John Elway decided not to pay Brock Osweiler? Then go ahead and use “we” when you talk about who the Broncos should install at quarterback.

And you must have been sitting next to Wade Phillips when he came up with the defensive game plan for the Super Bowl, what with all of the “we shut the Panthers down” talk I’m hearing.

The truth is, fans want to be involved so badly they have no idea they are sounding like morons when they didn’t do a damn thing to help the team other than drinking overpriced beer and yelling really loud at home games. And while the beer sales help sign free agents and the yelling helps befuddle visiting offenses, the stark reality is that this is the only thing a fan can contribute. And all this yelling and phantom involvement is unfortunately very present on my radio.

When a fan calls into the local talk station and wants to talk about what “we” should do concerning the Broncos, it’s comical if you think about how far removed that person is from having anything to do with the team. But there they are, earnestly telling the host what “we” should do in something like the draft, knowing full-well their restraining order keeps them far away from the war room at Dove Valley. They want to feel involved but they will never be anything other than a warm body at the stadium and even though it seems kind of harmless, enabling this kind of delusion is not healthy.

But do you want to know what the real definition of sickness is? When a fully compensated sports broadcaster does it. Then it not only becomes sad, it becomes something worse: unlistenable.

Ex-Bronco (and ex-Raven, Colt, Seahawk and Giant) Brandon Stokely has been co-hosting a mid-day talk show on the Fan with the incomparable Sandy Clough for a few weeks now. And while the differences between the two are many, there’s one that stands out: Clough would never be caught dead saying “we” when referencing a sports team. Stokely? Not so much.

Stokely constantly uses the royal “we” when referring to the Broncos and this would be fine if he was saying something like “we had no hope of winning when I caught that deflected pass in the Bengals game in ’09 and scored a touchdown.” But Stokely isn’t doing that. He’s saying “we” now like he’s right there with the team, catching passes, making personnel decisions and living at Dove Valley on a cot in the corner of the weight room.

This has to irk the very professional Clough, but being a pro, he never skips a beat. The average radio listener knows better, though, and groans and rolls their eyes like a teen being lectured on why to use an incognito window for their porn.

I don’t know if anyone has taken Stokely aside and said, “my man, you’re not on the team anymore,” but they need too quickly. He played four seasons for the Broncos and had one of the more memorable plays in team history, but he hasn’t been a Bronco in almost four years and unless he’s still on Pat Bowlen’s payroll, he needs to cool it with the “we” stuff.

Ex-jocks and fans alike should remove this word completely from their vocabulary when speaking about a team. It’s embarrassing and makes us all look to the rest of the world like face painting Travis Bickles, waiting for our chance to make Von Miller really, really like us.

The only “we” that should be referred to is when a fan is talking about the fan base he or she belongs to. That is something a fan is a member of no matter what hair-brained opinion they have and can feel free to say “we” and “our” and “us” at their leisure. We all belong to this group and it’s something you can honestly talk about having a personal stake in and not sound like a lunatic. Or not too much like a lunatic.

“We” the people of Broncos Country want you to leave the “we” for the people who put on the pads and the guys who cut the checks. Let them do their thing and you can enjoy from afar like Elway intended. Together “we” can end this, and together “we” can just simply be fans of the Denver Broncos without making it all about ourselves.